Morality and Responsibility

T. M. Scanlon (Author)

9781509566969, Polity Press

Hardback, published 11 April 2025

272 pages
23.1 x 15.8 x 2.8 cm, 0.522 kg

"(Scanlon) offers a persuasive explanation of what underlies many of the intuitions about individual rights, prohibitions and obligations that are often cited in opposition to utilitarianism."
Thomas Nagel, London Review of Books

T. M. Scanlon is one of the world’s leading philosophers, widely known for his contractualist moral theory and his distinctive account of moral responsibility and blame. In these important essays, written between 2001 and 2021, Scanlon reflects on the lines of thinking that led him to these views, considers objections to them, and locates them in relation to the views of others, including Derek Parfit, Harry Frankfurt, Gary Watson, and Christine Korsgaard.

The result will be essential reading for scholars and students in moral philosophy, political philosophy, and the philosophy of law.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: Morality
1 What Is Morality?
2 Contractualism and Justification
3 Wrongness and Reasons: A Re-examination
4 Ideas of the Good in Moral and Political Philosophy

Part II: Responsibility
5 Reasons and Passions
6 Interpreting Blame
7 Giving Desert its Due
8 Forms and Conditions of Responsibility
9 Responsibility and the Value of Choice
10 Responsibility for Health and the Value of Choice
11 Learning from Psychopaths
12 Korsgaard on Responsibility

Notes
References
Index

Subject Areas: Philosophy [HP]